60-day FRN

60-Day Notice of Intent To Seek Reinstatement Without Change:..., 83 FR 18387-01

83 FR 18387-01, 2018 WL 1942920(F.R.)
NOTICES
SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD
60-Day Notice of Intent To Seek Reinstatement Without Change: Generic
Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery
Thursday, April 26, 2018
AGENCY: Surface Transportation Board.

*18387 ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
SUMMARY: As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork burdens, and as required by the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995 (PRA), the Surface Transportation Board (STB or Board) gives notice that it is requesting from the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) a reinstatement without change of Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative
Feedback on Agency Service Delivery. This collection was developed as part of a Federal Government-wide effort to
streamline the process for seeking feedback from the public on the Board's service delivery.
DATES: Comments on this information collection should be submitted by June 25, 2018.
ADDRESSES: Direct all comments to Chris Oehrle, PRA Officer, Surface Transportation Board, 395 E Street SW,
Washington, DC 20423-0001, or to [email protected]. When submitting comments, please refer to “Paperwork Reduction
Act Comments, Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery.”
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: For further information regarding this collection, contact Michael
Higgins, Deputy Director, Office of Public Assistance, Governmental Affairs, and Compliance at (202) 245-0284 or
at [email protected]. [Assistance for the hearing impaired is available through the Federal Information Relay
Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339.]
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: For each collection, Comments are requested concerning: (a) Whether the
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether
the information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the collection
of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; (d) ways to
minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, including through the use of automated collection
techniques or other forms of information technology; and (e) estimates of capital or start-up costs and costs of operation,
maintenance, and purchase of services to provide information. Burden means the total time, effort, or financial resources
expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, disclose, or provide information to or for a Federal agency. This
includes the time needed to review instructions; to develop, acquire, install, and utilize technology and systems for the
purpose of collecting, validating, and verifying information, processing and maintaining information, and disclosing
and providing information; to train personnel and to be able to respond to a collection of information, to search data
sources, to complete and review the collection of information; and to transmit or otherwise disclose the information.
Submitted comments will be summarized and included in the Board's request for OMB approval.
Description of Collection
Title: Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery.
OMB Control Number: 2140-0019.

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60-Day Notice of Intent To Seek Reinstatement Without Change:..., 83 FR 18387-01

STB Form Number: None.
Type of Review: Reinstatement without change.
Respondents: Customers and stakeholders of the Board.
Number of Respondents, Frequency, Estimated Time per Response, and Total Burden Hours: A variety of instruments
and platforms may be used to collect information from respondents. The estimated annual burden hours (277) are based
on the number of collections we expect to conduct over the requested period for this clearance, as set forth in the table
below.
Estimated Annual Reporting Burden

Type of collection

Number of

Annual

Hours per

Total hours

respondents

frequency per response

response

Focus Group

Comment Card/Brief Survey

Surveys

15

1

2

30

200

2

.17

67

150

2

.6

180

Needs and Uses: The proposed information collection activity provides a means to garner qualitative customer and
stakeholder feedback in an efficient and timely manner, in accordance with the Administration's commitment to
improving service delivery. By qualitative feedback we mean information that provides useful insights on perceptions
and opinions, but not statistical surveys that yield quantitative results that can be generalized to the population of
study. This feedback will provide insights into customer or stakeholder perceptions, experiences, and expectations;
provide an early warning with issues about how the Board provides service to the public; or focus attention on areas
where communication, training, or changes in operations might improve delivery of *18388 products or services. These
collections will allow for ongoing, collaborative, and actionable communications between the Board and its customers
and stakeholders. They will also allow feedback to contribute directly to the improvement of program management.
The solicitation of feedback will target areas such as: Timeliness, appropriateness, accuracy of information, courtesy,
efficiency of service delivery, and resolution of issues with service delivery. Responses will be assessed to plan and inform
efforts to improve or maintain the quality of service offered to the public. If this information is not collected, vital
feedback from customers and stakeholders on the Board's services will be unavailable.
The Board will only process a collection under this generic clearance if it meets the following conditions:
• The collections are voluntary;
• the collections are low-burden for respondents (based on considerations of total burden hours, total number of
respondents, or burden-hours per respondent) and are low-cost for both the respondents and the Federal Government;
• the collections are non-controversial and do not raise issues of concern to other Federal agencies;

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60-Day Notice of Intent To Seek Reinstatement Without Change:..., 83 FR 18387-01

• any collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or
may have experience with the program in the near future;
• personally identifiable information is collected only to the extent necessary and is not retained;
• information gathered will be used only internally for general service improvement and program management purposes
and not for release outside of the agency;
• information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions; and
• information gathered will yield qualitative information, and the collections will not be designed or expected to yield
statistically reliable results or used as though the results are generalizable to the population of study.
Feedback collected under this generic clearance provides useful information, but will not yield data that can be
generalized to the overall population. Such data uses would require more rigorous designs than the collections covered
by this notice.
As a general matter, information collections will not result in any new system of records containing privacy information
and will not ask questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters
that are commonly considered private.
Under the PRA, a federal agency conducting or sponsoring a collection of information must display a currently valid
OMB control number. Comments submitted in response to this notice may be made available to the public by the
Board. For this reason, please do not include in your comments information of a confidential nature, such as sensitive
personal information or proprietary information. If you send an electronic comment (e-file or email), your email address
is automatically captured and may be accessed if your comments are made public. Please note that responses to this
public comment request containing any routine notice about the confidentiality of the communication will be treated as
public comments that may be made available to the public notwithstanding the inclusion of the routine notice.
Dated: April 23, 2018.
Jeffrey Herzig,
Clearance Clerk.

[FR Doc. 2018-08756 Filed 4-25-18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4915-01-P

End of Document

© 2018 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

© 2018 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

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